soaps better than creams for sensitive/dry skin

[Magnulus]

I've often heard that shaving soap is cheaper than shaving cream, and this seems to be true... however, I believe in my brief experience that shaving cream is better for sensitive or dry skin than hard or triple-milled soap. I haven't had a really great shave yet with hard shaving soap, it doesn't happen for me, no matter how carefully I lather the lather is relatively thin/dry feeling. I get better results with a hard soap like Williams or C&E Sandalwood using a pre-shave oil but it's still ho-hum shaves with a little irritation and the skin feels dry after the shave, and there is no margin to push for a closer shave without getting razor burn. And in this regard I think Williams is as good as any of the other hard soaps I've tried. OTOH, I've had better shaves with glycerine/shea butter infused soaps like Surrey/VDH, but they pretty much are creams in puck form, aren't they?

What do you all with more experience think?

 

[ScottS]

The product that treats my face the most luxuriously is Mitchell's Woolfat. If you don't have any problems with lanolin, I'd recommend giving it a try. It blows away everything else.

So far as a generic soaps vs creams, I've used good and bad examples of both with regards to moisturizing, with just the slightest edge maybe going to creams. Williams just happens to be particularly drying.

 

[Suzuki]

I think the only rule of thumb is that there are no rules of thumb.

If you can't get good lather from soap, the likely problem is that your'e not loading enough soap on the brush.

I had problems with soap until I started playing around with the amount of soap I put on the brush and then got MUCH better results.

The Williams and C&E soaps get very mixed reviews, so you're not starting with products that are consistently given high ratings.

I get great results from the Mitchels's/Kent woolfat - same soap, different label, Trumpers, Honeybee (glycerine with shea butter), Erasmich (both the stick, which is tallow-based and the bowl, which is glycerine-based).

The other soap that gets consistently good reviews is Col. Conk Almond, which has a lot of moisturizing oils in it.

The glycerine/shea butter soaps are no more "creams in a puck form" than Trumper's creams are their hard soaps in a paste. Soaps have different chemical compositions and even where the ingredients are the same, you'll likely find them in different proportions.

One suggestion is to pick up a stick of Erasmic, Arko (if you don't mind a strong soapy scent), Palmolive and try that - it was my experience with shaving sticks that clued me in as to how soaps could perform and why I was having problems with soap in cake form.

You'll have to experiment, but there are lots of great soaps out there - having said that, you could try the best and end up sticking with creams - and there's nothing wrong with that.

 

[Must Dash]

I've had a similar experience with soaps drying my skin; L'Occitane being by far the most extreme case. I've mentioned this in a couple of posts, but not being shy of repetition... I'm using a moisturizer as a pre-shave while lathering up with either soap or cream. I have found it works an absolute treat. The blade glides more easily during the shave, and my skin feels pretty good afterwards. Somehow, lathering from soap feels more authentic than cream. No explanation offered.

 

[rafikz]

I've had a similar experience with soaps drying my skin; L'Occitane being by far the most extreme case. I've mentioned this in a couple of posts, but not being shy of repetition... I'm using a moisturizer as a pre-shave while lathering up with either soap or cream. I have found it works an absolute treat. The blade glides more easily during the shave, and my skin feels pretty good afterwards. Somehow, lathering from soap feels more authentic than cream. No explanation offered.

What kind of moisturizer do u use preshave ? body lotion ?

 

[rafikz]

The product that treats my face the most luxuriously is Mitchell's Woolfat. If you don't have any problems with lanolin, I'd recommend giving it a try. It blows away everything else.

So far as a generic soaps vs creams, I've used good and bad examples of both with regards to moisturizing, with just the slightest edge maybe going to creams. Williams just happens to be particularly drying.

I agree tht Lanolin is amazing for shaving ; must explains why I prefer Proraso Red to the Green.

 

[Howard Newell]

I usually don't have any problems with soap drying out my skin, but I think the tallow-based, triple milled Tabac shaving soap is very good. Like the other member said, with the way you're describing your lather being really thin, it does sound like you're not getting enough soap on the bristles. I used to have the same problem, but I actually started lathering directly on the puck and got much better lather.